motor free revs (torque converter)

hey all,

I just swapped torque converters, in an early 70s 350 rebuilt and bolted to a turbo 350 transmission, the swap was to a 2400-2800 stall. But when i dropped the transmission to change it, apparently the tv cable cracked, well i went and took it out after filling the tranny with fluid, and made it a couple blocks before hearing a snap, nothing like a knock or hammer er something loud but nonetheless a snap, and then the motor free revved, like i was out of fluid, so i pulled over immediately, and found a lake of tranny fluid forming, peeing out the tv cable.

we pushed it back into the garage, replaced the tv cable, and adjusted it again, checked the linkage, the converter bolts etc. and everything else external checked out fine.

I refilled the transmission as it pee'd away a good couple quarts of fluid, and now it won't go into gear, we checked the shift linkage, and checked and made sure the driveshaft wasnt spinning (old gears that i'm soon going to replace, and we just were curious to locate the exact problem.)

The motor runs fine, the flexplate still turns the torque converter, (cranked it a couple times with the inspection cover off) but there is nothing happening behind the torque converter apparently... fluid is filled and actually a quart overfilled because we expected it to keep sucking fluid in and it didnt...

we primed the torque converter before we put it in, and instaled it according to the instructions with filling it up and what not, but we were thinking that when the tv cable broke, possibly the transmission just leaked out all the fluid from the converter and now the converter stopped turning the pump?

I'm quite lost and dont know what to do at this point any ideas are greatly appreciated

bump,

new info pulled the new torque converter back out, and the face of the converter's shaft on the pump ear end was galled, also the chamfer on the end of the same shaft was on the outside on the new one, vs the inside of the old one, input shaft looked fine.

What exactly is happening when you try to put it into gear? This is a long shot, but when I put my transmission kit in for the first time last weekend, my boost valve wiggled loose and dropped out into the pan, causing it to treat every gear other than Park like Neutral. I don't see why it would come out, but it's a longshot. If you pull the tranny pan and find a valve lying in it, then you found your problem. Just something to try if nothing else works out.

This sounds like the convertor wasn't "seated" into the front pump of the trans (the two slots on the end of the convertor need to interlock into the corresponding "ears" in the front pump).

Probably time for a trans and a convertor now. It's possible you may get it to work, but at a minimum you need a new front pump bushing, and it seems likely the ears in the pump are damaged.

If there are any shavings or schrapnel in either the trans or the convertor, both are going to live a very short life.

The cable wouldn't cause a free rev on a TH 350.

hmm...

i actually got a new converter and tried it, and ended up with the same thing, this time i made sure they seated properly though, still free revs in all gears, I'm going to check over the cooler lines and see if fluid is moving, usually the cooler leaks fluid all over the place when i pull the lines, but this last time it really didnt at all, i'm also going to pull the pan and see if anything metallic is in it, if i have to go with a new tranny I'm going with a manual 4 spd, i hate these things where it's a guessing game with what's wrong...

thanks for all the help so far, any more ideas please post however :/